On Friday 03 November 2006 04:08, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote: > I wouldn't call that selling the users down the river. Independent of > the fate of Novell the deal will stop worries about MS killing the open > source movement with patents.
Yes, though it's unclear from the press release whether the patent ceasefire is in perpetuity, or merely for the duration of the Novell agreement (up to 2012, IIRC). I got the impression it was the latter, so there is the difficulty that Microsoft could argue in any future legal assault that one of the leading distro makers explicitly accepted there were patent issues in Linux. That's not so good. In general, though, this is an interesting development. If it makes Linux easier for new people to use as a desktop (because of less issues with multimedia), that might be a good thing. Provided any Microsoft-supplied code is kept well-away from core GPL areas (to prevent future difficulties), and packaged as some sort of add-on, there should be no ongoing problems - after all, development of Linux and free software is not going to stop any time soon. It's also quite a sea-change - who a few years ago would have said that Microsoft would even acknowledge Linux as a competitor, never mind "sell" services related to it (even through gritted teeth). This in fact says a lot about how the IT landscape is shifting under them, even if Microsoft PR says otherwise. One of the big drivers for this, I think, is virtualisation, where Microsoft has been caught on the hop. They will certainly try to suck what they can out of this and spit out the husk, but it's up to Novell to ensure openSUSE don't get left with cinders - if they are robust about the GPL, that shouldn't be the case. -- Pob hwyl / Best wishes Kevin Donnelly www.kyfieithu.co.uk - KDE yn Gymraeg www.eurfa.org.uk - Geiriadur rhydd i'r Gymraeg www.rhedadur.org.uk - Rhedeg berfau Cymraeg www.cymrux.org.uk - Linux Cymraeg ar un CD --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
